Probing the Perception About Probing the Perception About Chemistry on Industrial Chemistry Chemistry on Industrial Chemistry

Students atStudents at Universiti TeknologiUniversiti Teknologi MARAMARA

Zarila Mohd Shariff Zarila Mohd Shariff && Jaafar JantanJaafar JantanSixteenth Chemical Analysis

Symposium(SKAM 16), UNIMAS, Sept 9th -11th, 2003

Applied Sciences Education Research Group (ASERG), Faculty of Applied Sciences

Universiti Teknologi MARA 40450 Shah Alam

email: email: drjjlanita@salam.uitm.edu.mydrjjlanita@salam.uitm.edu.my; ; zarila@salam.uitm.edu.myzarila@salam.uitm.edu.my

http://www.uitm.edu.my/faculties/fsg/drjj1.htmlhttp://www.uitm.edu.my/faculties/fsg/drjj1.html

Introduction Introduction -- QuoteQuote

"One who learns by finding out has sevenfold the skill of the one who learned by being told.“ - Arthur Gutterman

Introduction Introduction Preparing human resources to do chemical analysis – the stumbling blocks

Example: Ideas of Chromatography– separation, chemical mixtures, – compounds, molecules, atoms, – bonding, adsorption, ion-exchange, affinity, – phases, stationary, mobile, retention time,– column, detectors, – supercritical fluid, critical point, saturation points

IntroductionIntroductionPreparing human resources to do chemical analysis – the stumbling blocks

Non coherent ideas may lead to non-creative students & mediocre performing chemical analysts, at best.– Check by looking at how ideas are connected

togetherConcept map

IntroductionIntroduction--CMAPCMAP

IntroductionIntroductionPreparing human resources to do chemical analysis – the stumbling blocks

Non coherent ideas may lead to non-creative students & mediocre performing chemical analysts, at best.– Diagrammatic representation of a separation process

IntroductionIntroductionPreparing human resources to do chemical analysis – the stumbling blocks

Non coherent ideas may lead to non-creative students & mediocre performing chemical analysts, at best.– Graphical representation and

interpretation of a chromatogram tR (min.)

IntroductionIntroductionPreparing human resources to do chemical analysis – the stumbling blocks

Ideas or beliefs can be tapped or predicted by probing their views about chemistry and science

IntroductionIntroductionResearch findings:

Researchers observed that students at all levels hold views about science that are at odds with the views that they are expected to develop in science courses.

students views may negatively affect achievements in these science courses, and minimize their strength in becoming reliable chemical analysts.

ObjectivesObjectives

Probe the perception about chemistry among Diploma in Industrial Chemistry students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

Correlate Chemistry VASS and the students’ academic achievements

MethodologyMethodologyUse Chemistry VASS (Views About Science Survey)

- Hestenes & Halloun (1996)Translated into Bahasa Melayu (2000)30 items, paper and pencil instrument – 13 Scientific Dimension

Structure, methodology, validity– 17 Cognitive Dimension

Learnability, reflective thinking, personal relevance

Methods:Methods:An example of the Scientific Dimension An example of the Scientific Dimension of the of the

Chemistry VASS items.Chemistry VASS items.

Pakar-pakar kimia menyatakan bahawa elektron-elektron

dan proton-proton ujud di dalam atom kerana:

(a) mereka pernah melihat zarah-zarah tersebut dalambentuknya yang sebenar dengan menggunakanperalatan-peralatan yang tertentu.

(b) mereka telah menjalankan pemerhatian-pemerhatianyang boleh menjelaskan mengenai zarah-zarahtersebut.

Methods:Methods:An example of the Cognitive Dimension An example of the Cognitive Dimension of the VASS of the VASS

items.items.

Apabila saya mempelajari kimia dengan menggunakan buku

teks atau daripada bahan-bahan kursus:

(a) Saya cari maklumat penting dan menghafalnyamengikut cara ianya ditunjukkan.

(b) saya susun bahan-bahannya mengikut cara sayasendiri supaya mudah saya fahami.

MethodologyMethodologyChoice of Contrasting Alternatives Design (CAD) for instrument

– each CAD item requires respondent to balance a primary view against a contrary view on an eight point scale

Data collected transformed to digital form and analyzed with digital Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 11

Methods:Methods:Example: Example: A contrasting Alternative Design in one of A contrasting Alternative Design in one of

the VASS items.the VASS items.Penyelesaian masalah kimia memerlukan saya:

(a) pernah melihat penyelesaian kepada masalah yang sama sebelum ini.

(b) boleh menggunakan teknik umum penyelesaian masalah.

87654321

Ke arah “Hanya (a)”

Ke arah “Hanya (b)”

Samarata(a) & (b)

Bukan(a) atau (b)

ResultsResults330 subjects

Categorized responses – Expert View, Mixed View and Folk View on each item of Chem VASS– Expert View: Response chosen by expert– Mixed View: Response in middle position – Folk View: Response opposite to expert options

ResultsResultsExample: Classification of students responses according to Expert, Mixed and Folk View on one of the item in Chemistry VASS

17.Setelah guru menyelesaikan sesuatu masalah yang mana penyelesaian saya adalah salah:

(a) saya buang penyelesaian saya dan saya belajar penyelesaian yangditunjukkan oleh guru

(b) saya cuba menentukan perbezaaan penyelesaian saya dan penyelesaian guru

Results and DiscussionResults and Discussion

Students’ views responses were further classified into 4 categories :

Expert Profile - EPHigh Transitional Profile - HTPLow Transitional Profile - LTP Folk Profile - FP

ResultsResults

10 items or less with expert views

FP4Folk

11 to 14 items with expert views

LTP3Low Transitional

15 to 18 expert viewsHTP2High Transitional

19 items or more of expert views

EP1Expert

# of items out of 30AbbrCodeProfile

ResultsResults

8.8%

32%

42%

17.3%

ResultsResults

ResultsResults

ConclusionConclusionSmall percentage of students have views similar to the expertsStudents with expert views are high achieversMore than 50% of the students are in the LTP & FPBulk of failures in the program comes from the LTP and FP.Sadly, senior students contribute to high percentage of LTP & FP.

AcknowledgementAcknowledgement

Bureau of Research and Consultancy, UiTM for research grantFaculty of Applied Sciences, UiTM for use of facilitiesSKAM 16 for accepting this paperAll of you for lending your ear and patience

Thank Youemail: email: drjjlanita@salam.uitm.edu.my; drjjlanita@salam.uitm.edu.my;

zarila@salam.uitm.edu.myzarila@salam.uitm.edu.myhttp://www.uitm.edu.my/faculties/fsg/drjj1.htmlhttp://www.uitm.edu.my/faculties/fsg/drjj1.html

Scientific DimensionScientific Dimension

Structure - Chemistry is a coherent body of knowledge about patterns in nature revealed by careful investigation

- rather than a loose collection of directly perceived factsMethodology – the methods of science/chemistry are systematic and generic

- rather than idiosyncratic and situation specificValidity – Scientific/chemistry knowledge is approximate, tentative, and refutable

- rather than exact, absolute and final

Cognitive DimensionCognitive DimensionLearnability – Chemistry is learnable by anyone willing to make the effort not just few talented peopleReflective thinking – concentrate more on systematic use of principles

- examine situation in many ways - look for discrepancies in one own’s knowledge - reconstruct new subject knowledge in one’s own way

Personal relevance – chemistry is relevant to everyone’s life; it is not of exclusive concern to scientist/chemist; chemistry should be studied more for personal benefit than for fulfilling curriculum requirements